The price of used vehicles is heading back up... ?

They did last month anyway. I expected a pretty large retracement of the huge increase over the last 3 years. Prices did drop last year, but they are still super high. Maybe the situation is better for older live in vehicles? I don't know, but it seems the demand for the lower budget stuff is quite a bit better. Many new vehicles are still hard to get, which pushes up the prices of the newer used ones.

Shopped for a used van lately..... in my area if it will run, it's $10,000 and up.

At this point I am hoping that electric cars will get affordable enough, have a long enough capability and be self driving so they can meet my needs in 10 or 15 years. Until then I’ll just keep buying expensive gasoline or not travel as much. At my age exercise of walking and riding my electric bicycle is a good thing. Since Arizona allows UTVs on most roads I may buy an entry level lower priced one that gets 25 mpg if my Samurai ever wears out and I can’t find a mechanic to keep it going. My antique vehicles are costing me less than a couple new car monthly car payments a year to maintain and my hearing is getting bad enough rattles don’t bother me as much! Lol!!! We were lucky enough 5 years ago to get a 17 year old Toyota Sequoia (basically a Tundra pickup drive train) with a little less than 200,000 miles on it for $5,000 which we put an additional $5000 into it over the last 5 years. We put about 20,000 miles a year on it and use the four wheel drive on places like the Moki dugway as well as 80 mph on the interstates. So far it has cost us about $160 a month to own. I’m already smiling, but it isn’t unreasonable with continued maintenance for it to last another 5 years, so monthly cost to own should be around $125 a month to own over the time we will have had it. A new similarly equipped one like ours is $70,000 minimum. I estimated the cost of buying and maintaining a new one would be at least $500 a month if you could pay cash and much more if you had to finance the initial cost. This to me says I have spent less than 1/4 of what it would have cost me to buy a new one. This may only apply to a Toyota Sequoia but I believe I did much better with a Toyota Camry as the operating costs are about 1/2 what they are for the Sequoia as it is front wheel drive and lower maintenance costs due to highway use only. A reliable, well maintained, lightly used vehicle is still a much better buy if you can find one in my opinion. Sequoias (people tend to take better care of them as they cost so much to replace) and Camrys are generally driven by older drivers so tend to be lower miles and factory maintained. A Sequoia can pull a small light weight trailer like a Casita, Scamp or home built foamie. Something to consider if used van prices are putting you off!

I drove a Camry for 17 years before going with a Prius. It's probably still out there. No good for towing, though.

^^^Basic transportation, 28 mpg, but one person with a tent, removing seats for a sleeping platform in bad weather, with a huge trunk for storage and seasonal jobs with housing you could do worse! Prius is better but costs are high.

I drove a GEO Metro aka Suzuki Swift that saved enough to more than pay for my new truck as it got 50 mpg (older ones 60) but my favorites were the 2 Diesel VW Rabbits that got 55 mpg & were very comfortable for someone 6'4" & a '85 Subaru 4WD wagon which got 35 mpg on gas. Last year bought a 2015 deluxe Grand Caravan with all the options, 2 TVs, stow & go, avoidment system & much more with 70,000 miles for $4k. The old couple drove it south every year so it never saw salt. It would make a great stealth camper for 1 or 2 people as I sleep in a chair anyway.

I was really hoping prices would go down not up.

It is still a market of supply and demand but just like the RV market when one supplier gets control of components, they form a monopoly and begin extortion pricing. Computer chips seem to be the latest means to do this with vehicles. Dealerships love it as they can increase profits while selling fewer cars at a higher price which increases the value of used cars. Used to be you could get a running/driving pickup for $2,500 now you are lucky to find one poorly maintained for $5,000.

I'm suprised no one's jumped on the motor home aka used to be an ambo especially with the low miles &,extras just for members of this site so i'll delete it soon & sell it local & the extra's separate. A new bare bones E450 is $340,000 with a 2 year wait & $500,000 fully equipted. Click the link & see they haven't changed much except in bad ways like diesel exhaust fluid, computers & many more things to fail. Maybe I'll keep it for a shtf vehicle as I know the excellent shape it's in. Also last full year of no computer so no emp or sunspot issues & it's ready to live in. https://www.hancockclarion.com/2022/09/14/hancock-fiscal-court-surprised-at-cost-of-new-ambulance/

Gr8ful said:

I'm suprised no one's jumped on the motor home aka used to be an ambo especially with the low miles

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I'm surprised as well...

Gr8ful said:

I drove a GEO Metro aka Suzuki Swift that saved enough to more than pay for my new truck as it got 50 mpg (older ones 60) but my favorites were the 2 Diesel VW Rabbits that got 55 mpg & were very comfortable for someone 6'4" & a '85 Subaru 4WD wagon which got 35 mpg on gas. Last year bought a 2015 deluxe Grand Caravan with all the options, 2 TVs, stow & go, avoidment system & much more with 70,000 miles for $4k. The old couple drove it south every year so it never saw salt. It would make a great stealth camper for 1 or 2 people as I sleep in a chair anyway.

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My grandfather had one of those Rabbits - awesome little car!

Winter in Michigan may be the issue.

In Michigan after Winter ends, then it's construction season.

When I lived in Michigan, I owned a 1989 Suzuki Swift GTi, 1300cc DOHC. That vehicle had neutral steering, no over steer, no under steer. Light weight vehicle, under 1,800 lbs with a 100hp engine, is 18 lbs/hp. I mounted high performance, all weather tires that were great in rain or snow. Hitting standing water during torrential rains on I-69 or I-75, I could feel the tires sucking the pavement as water was ejected by the tread pattern.

My geo had the 3 cyl 1000cc engine but it & the rabbits used the tire size in the ads 4 13" installed for $99. Every $10 of gas I put in the Geo I put $30 in my pocket not counting wear/tear & rust on the truck. People called it the clown car but it never bothered me.

I too am waiting for prices "to return to normal" before buying a light camper and switch out my truck for another TV. And yes, I expected to happen by now. Some of the high prices comes from dealers buying at auction "too high" and being unable to sell them. I mean, every 20th person that comes along might have no idea of a proper price and thus is extending this lunacy. Yesterday I saw a late 70s Ford van with a couple of wooden benches in it and marbled carpet over everything. Dealer called this a "conversion van" and priced it a $16k. <-- To me this van looked like $3500. All we can do is wait for all the suckers to work themselves out of the market and then prices should get more sane.

there won't be no new normal lower. we are up up and stabilizing in up simple as that.

key being as UP happens SO MANY will be caught. Will have to sell for cheap so keep eyes out on buyers needing to dump at no matter what cost. Buyers market thru hard times from others, yea seems that way will come. Don't think anything is going back to what it was, it is only gonna get worse.

Sane will become acceptance as in the population has 0 choice in it.
Acceptance of new higher tough pricing is for all, ain't gonna go back in any way. So get thoughts handled on what ya need, how ya need it and more and just think higher to live life more in yrs to come. I mean, come on, it is what it is

being 61 now and heading into retirement I KNOW my accts ain't gonna give me what I desire so I am jumping and leaping thru hoops to make good bank NOW while I can on what I got. Key being, everyone might as well wake up. Handle the future as you think you need more now than to wait. But we all go by our own tune and what we think will go down, but eyes open all. Ain't gonna be pretty package waiting for us in the future in my opinion. A post of doom, nope, a post of reality well, for me it is LOL

For us things don’t change much really. Learning you can live simply and understanding what your basic needs are is key. Insuring you have enough income coming in to do that gives you options. If a vehicle cost $5,000 in the past and is $25,000 now and you’ve got $2,000 you learn to made do the best you can with what you have got. Get a seasonal job with housing so you don’t have to drive to work and save. Move closer so you can walk or bicycle in a climate that is conducive to doing so. Keep and fix a cheaper inexpensive vehicle when you can afford it. Take advantage of what resources there are available like friends or family maybe babysitting in exchange for transportation, repairs or a place to stay till you can save enough to buy what you need. Always be looking to improve your skills or income earning opportunities. Make sure you can afford what you need by paying cash for it or until you have enough income/savings you won’t be adversely affected by having to replace it if necessary. Your basic needs can change based on where you are living and as a nomad you have the advantage of being able to move, use it if somewhere else is cheaper to live. Make what you have work for you until you can afford a vehicle that will make life easier and more affordable for you to live. Don’t buy something that will burden you to the point the first breakdown forces you to abandon it because you can’t afford to fix it.

mkoontz said:

I mean, every 20th person that comes along might have no idea of a proper price and thus is extending this lunacy.

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Proper price is whatever you can get. Supply and demand. When the supply improves and demand declines, so will the price.

There are only so many used cars, trucks, vans... and during the pandemic there was a flood of low budget people looking for them... as a home! The alternative often being the street, or pay to rent a room somewhere and walk to work, or... ? For the newer and higher priced vehicles, many want those to live in too, and work remotely. But new production is still down and tight due to supply chain and shortages of parts.

Triple whammy. Dump trillions of $$$ on people to stay home, take away their job and social life.... and camping is one thing that is still ok to do. So people buy camper rigs like crazy. This group will probably be selling soon as the "fun money" runs out and we have a recession. The high budget vanlifers will probably see some decline too as companies require showing up to work, and they decide living in a van isn't that much fun. But the low budget? I don't see demand going down anytime soon, and supply will improve only a little, as the two groups above are mostly getting rid of more expensive rigs. There will be some trickle down, though!

^^^Just like trickle down worked by making the rich wealthier! Lol!!! The RV/van market will continue to be manipulated by the corporate organization doing that now by limiting supplies of RV sinks, tanks, valves, electrical components, furniture and etc. as well as the vehicle manufacturers. Seems without competition they have figured out they can make more money selling fewer units that are cheaper to build with poor quality components which will further limit supply and increase prices. Increased component prices have forced all the small independent manufacturers out or caused them to inflate prices to try to survive which they aren’t.